Sunday, September 14, 2014

Q: If you punch 0-1-4-0 into a calculator, and turn it upside-down, you get the state OHIO. What numbers can you punch in a calculator, and turn upside-down, to get a state capital, a country and a country's capital?

It's easier to solve this puzzle than it is to provide hints. Just focus on the letters BEGHILOSZ.

69 comments:

Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

It's a one-way hash. That means the same hash could be generated for a different input, but it is very unlikely to have a hash "collision". You can't get back to the input from the hash value which makes them great for verifying information without giving it away. However, in researching MD5 a little more, it seems that SHA-2 is now the recommended hash algorithm.

More upside-down alarm clocks. Oh well. I don’t need to check my answers – they’re all correct. One small thing, though. Evidently, the writer of this puzzle and Will Shortz are unaware that many newer calculators don’t display leading zeros.

I didn't realize before this that 2 on the calculator was accepted as a Z. The others have a passing resembling to the letters, but that Z has a diagonal that a calculator cannot make. But, OK, if that's so, I can easily ring an answer up.

While we're talking about interesting numbers, there is always 1729, which does not spell anything in particular upside-down, but is the basis for a memorable story about the great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1729_(number).

Boys and girls, you'll really rack up the frequent flyer miles traveling high and low between these three locales.

But before you go, please bring appropriate clothing for every possible type of weather you encounter when making this journey.

Also, dare I say it, at least one of these locales (I'm not going to say how many) has indirectly figured into at least one (again, I'm not going to say how many) previous challenges through the years.

I have a slight issue with “upside-down-2 = Z.” I’ve also a quibble, but less-so, with “upside-down-8 = B.” If you look at an inverted 8 it is not really a B unless you round off its northeast and southeast corners. OK, so then why can’t an inverted zero represent not only an O but also a D? And, inverted 9 looks a bit like an upper-case G, although who cares, we’ve already got inverted 6 as a lower-case g, and case doesn’t seem to matter much.

(Blaine’s note this week about what letters are kosher was very helpful. Thanks Blaine. Glad you’re okay and back.)

That nit picked, I still found the three answers this week, and found the puzzle somewhat enjoyable. The average number of digits in the three answers is respectable. And not having R, N, T, A, and U on one’s palette limit’s the majesty of any multi-lettered words one may paint.

I then did, however, some 6N176006 to see how long a word/string of numbers I could find. There is the six-letter toponymic Greek 3751, of course (like canary or bikini), and the seven-letter Russian ballet academy.

Others:What a minister often does at funerals or wakes (8 letters/numbers) Word describing paradise after it is paved (8 letters/numbers)Word often describing bachelors (8 letters/numbers)Word describing a bad marriage (9 letters/numbers)Word describing what Word Woman (aka Scientific Steph) does over on her excellent PEOTS blog. (10 letters/numbers)

Paul, Shore is. But death is that other b-word.Keep your key in the input box along with your text, then use your key to decode it. In the output box, take what has become of your key and duplicate it (that's what I always do when I need a spare) and bring a nice souvenir home for a lady-friend.

In retrospect, the above may have been a tip-off to BOISE and BELIZE. Maybe I should have stuck with my earlier version:Z*gII-LL*BB-Bg*OISZ*LIZg*EhOG*GSDispensing with the nonsense:17.25, -88.77 Belmopan43.62, -116.20 Boise59.9, 10.68 Oslo

With what did you bait your breath? I find worms gross; my friend, Kermit, says time's fun when you're having flies. Speaking of which, the guide on our Snake River raft trip decorated the sun visor in his van with dry flies and lures he's found snagged on driftwood on the river.

Good example of a Brain Study: If youcan read this OUT LOUD you have a strong mind. And better than that:Alzheimer's is a long long, way down the road before it ever getsanywhere near you.

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1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5!

1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG

17 WA5 H4RD BU7

N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3

Y0UR M1ND 1S

R34D1NG 17

4U70M471C4LLY

W17H 0U7 3V3N

7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17,

B3 PROUD! 0NLY

C3R741N P30PL3 C4N

R3AD 7H15.

PL3453 F0RW4RD 1F

U C4N R34D 7H15.

Only great minds can read this. This is weird, but interesting!

If you can read this, you have a strange mind, too.Can you read this? Olny 55 people out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch atCmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in aword are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteerbe in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can stillraed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseaethe huamn mnid deos not raedervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh andI awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed this forward it.

Yes, thank you, ron, for this fun exercise. I had just returned from a climate change/tar sands demonstration at the Kanadian border at the Blaine Peace Arch and did not say it out loud, but read them both silently without any difficulty at all, and even much faster than I normally read text. Then I cooked and ate dinner and went back and read both aloud after mucho Portuguese wine without any difficulty again, but a bit slower than when I read them silently. I can't remember if I have that memory disease I forget the name of though.

Next week's challenge: Name a famous actor best known for tough-guy roles. The first five letters of his first name and the first four letters of his last name are the first five and four letters, respectively, in the first and last names of a famous author. Who is the actor, and who is the author?